Softer

Prices softened as expected Wednesday in response to partialabatement of the heat wave that plagued the Northeast and MiddleAtlantic earlier this week. But based on the sharp spike in futuresfollowing the afternoon release of AGA’s storage report, sourcesshowed no hesitation in saying they expect cash to return to anupward direction today.

The slippage in April swing prices that had begun mildlyWednesday gained more momentum Thursday as quotes fell by about anickel or more almost across the board except in California, led bydrops of about 15 cents at some Northeast citygates. May bidweekprices also softened, but only by a couple of pennies or so in mostcases, sources said.

Both the April swing and May baseload markets were reportedgetting slightly softer Wednesday, mostly because of a small screendownturn and an approaching end of Northeast chill.

This week’s moderate bull market came to an end for the mostpart Wednesday as cash prices bowed under the weight of decliningfutures to range from flat to down a little more than a nickel.

Overall prices for the weekend softened in Friday’s trading, butsome sizeable rebounds were occurring towards mid-morning as cashfollowed the screen back up after having previously followed itlower, several traders said.

Disregarding debate over whether the new millennium has alreadybegun or won’t arrive until nearly a year from now, gas tradersgreeted the year 2000 by sending spot prices moderately lower. Itwas hardly surprising that the January aftermarket would open on adownward trend, a Texas marketer said. “We’ve been wondering whythis market has remained up as much it did. Everything seemsbearish.”

For the most part, late-December incremental prices continued todrift lower by small amounts Tuesday in quiet activity as tradersincreasing focused their attention on January business. Evenbidweek was still dragging, complained a Midcontinent producer;”there’s lot of talking, but few actual deals.”

In activity that was predictably very subdued for a day leadinginto the long Christmas weekend, prices ranged from flat to down afew cents Thursday. As one source commented, “Man, I’ve seen deadmarkets before, but this one seems to be rotting in the grave.”Somewhat in keeping with that remark, a marketer said many of hertrading partners had only “skeleton crews” in the office, andvirtually nobody was still around after lunchtime.

In sharp contrast to falling prices in all other areas,Northeast citygates were moving higher Tuesday. By far the mostdazzling performance came from Transco deliveries into New YorkCity that spiked by about a dollar above $4, much as they had onNov. 30. Unlike the end of November, when Transco Zone 6-NYC quotespeaked at $4.75, Tuesday’s top end hit $5.05.